CWS In The News: I2P2 Debate Ahead

March 4, 2011 – 1:05 pm

“Business and labor are preparing to wage a lobbying battle over a new rule expected later this year that could have a profound effect on how health and safety are handled in the workplace,” reports The Hill. At stake is the future of a potential Occupational Safety and Health Administration plan requiring workplace managers to institute a Injury and Illness Prevention Program (or I2P2). In the story on the coming debate, The Hill kindly includes the voice of the Coalition for Workplace Safety:

OSHA’s focus on the rule has caught the attention of a number of business groups. Members of the Coalition for Workplace Safety, like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, have grown concerned about the rule.

“This would be the most sweeping regulation that OSHA has ever put out,” said Marc Freedman, the Chamber’s executive director of labor law policy.

Freedman believes the rule could require employers to identify all hazards in the workplace, even ones not already mitigated for by OSHA.

“There is one school of thought that they would not have to issue another regulation ever again,” Freedman said.